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The entire village became a battlefield, and with both sides going on the offensive, they both suffered major losses.

Many of the villagers tried to hide or escape. Refusing to leave their piles of riches, the old couple ended up killed along with the rest of the villagers who stayed behind.

However, there was no sign of the woman.

In the end, the two brothers died on the very spot they made their agreement three years prior.

They're brothers, why did they end up fighting each other?!

After the leaders died, both sides continued to send reinforcements into the area.

Soldiers were deployed, fortifications were built, fortresses were erected.

The war in that place never ended.

The two fortresses were combined together and called Nito-jo.

Between the north and south fortresses lies the ruins of the village...

And countless dead...

Of course, normally only the first few parts are recited in the ceremony. The later parts are only enacted during the great ceremonies once every few years.

As for why the people of Higashi like this story so much, I'm not really sure either.

The third brother and the sky woman don't come up again?

Oh, they do. Let me think.

Hm, there are a few versions of the ending.

One says that after the village was destroyed, someone tried looking for the riches in the old man's house, but he found only bones.

So he told everyone that the woman was a fairy who had descended to Higashi with great expectations of the land below only to see the greed and tyranny of the people. She returned to heaven disappointed.

Another version is that this was a trickster fairy, and it wasn't the first tragedy she caused, and it wouldn't be the last.

After witnessing the fate of his elder brothers, the third brother decided to avenge them by killing the fairy.

But he had no way to travel to heaven, and the fairy taunted him from the sky.

In the end, the third brother became a ghost who wanders around Higashi, forever searching for a way to take revenge against the fairy.

Morte, come here and let me patch you up.

Meow—

Mm...

I think I heard a story like this when I was little...

Really?

Do you know any Victorian fairy tales?

Nope.

I don't know many either...

Let me tell it, then.

Alright, another story!

I hope it's a happy story where no one dies this time.

Ah...

Haha...

(Begins patching the hole in Morte).

The story goes like this——

Ahem...

Once upon a time, there was a rich Victorian kingdom. The king of this country had a pair of twins.

When they were born, the most respected caster in the country came to congratulate the king on the birth of the prince and princess, and offered a prophecy:

'With the guidance of the divine light, both will have bright futures.'

The king was extremely pleased and bequeathed upon the caster many treasures and riches. But when he asked the caster to explain the prophecy, he fell silent and left the castle instead.

Years later, the prince and princess were grown, but the wise king had fallen ill with a terrible sickness and was bedridden. The doctors said it was a terminal illness, and that only the Divine Originium could save the king.

All the warriors from across the land set out to search for the Originium, including the prince and princess, disguised as adventurers.

They had to join the quest to save their father.

The two traveled together, searching the deepest caves and crossing the wildest forests.

(Miss Mousse has a very different way of speaking when she's telling a story.)

They stopped a scheme by an evil witch, they defeated vicious barbarians, all in search of the smallest clue that could lead them to the Originium.

What an adventure!

Finally, they had a lead. Following the clues, the brother and sister climbed up a tall mountain. At the mountain peak, they found a monster——

——And its nest, filled to the brim with treasure.

This monster could soar through the skies. Its scaly armor repelled all manner of weapons, and from its maw it breathed a fearsome flame. The siblings could not even harm it.

(Stops the needle and thread in her hand).

But they were able to use the monster's greed against it, luring it into its own nest.

There, the two fought against the monster for ages. In the end, the brother fell unconscious from his injuries and the sister was left to face the monster alone.

Unexpectedly, the monster did not press the attack. Instead, it opened its huge mouth asked why they had entered its nest.

The princess answered the question honestly:

She needed the Divine Originium to save her father's life.

The monster nodded and pointed to the cave full of treasure, giving her permission to look for the Originium herself.

Not long after, her brother woke up. The monster asked the same question.

The brother gave the same answer as his sister, and the monster let him pass.

But when faced with treasure that dwarfed even his country's wealth, the brother changed his mind.

He stuffed his pockets full of treasure and sneaked out of the cave before his sister could notice.

Bad guy!

The sister searched through the piles of treasures for a long time before discovering the Divine Originium that seemed rather dull amongst the glow of the other treasures. Carrying out the Originium, she realized that her brother had disappeared.

She searched through the entire cave and even worked up the courage to ask the monster of her brother's whereabouts, but the monster merely grinned and said nothing.

If I had a brother like that——!

Calm down, Popukar! It's just a story!

Standing on the mountain peak and looking at the two royals in the distance, the monster let out a roar of satisfaction. The Originium crystals on its body shined a divine light that flickered along with the monster's every breath.

After that, the princess presented the Originium and the king instantly recovered his vitality.

He granted a great reward to the princess and even gave her a necklace made from the Divine Originium. Alas, even after the king was cured, he continued to grow.

More limbs, a larger brain! The king eventually turned into a monster and began slaughtering people indiscriminately!

The country's knights banded together and killed the monstrous king. The princess was also charged and sent to the gallows.

The Originium necklace around her neck shined with a gentle light up until her death.

In the chaos, the old caster who gave the prophecy to the king all those years ago appeared before the princess and her Divine Originium, only to whisk them away.

With the end of the royal bloodline, the entire country fell into chaos.

What about the bad guy brother?!

In another country far, far away, the brother heard what happened.

Though he shed tears of guilt, he continued to cram his gullet with the finest foods in the world.

With the wealth he took from the monster's cave, he had become a noble in another land, and lived out his days in luxury.

That's unfair!

Oh, I get it.

Fairy tales are all monsters that eat all the good people.

Ah...

Shamare is from Siracusa, right? Are there any similar stories over there?

(Continues sewing Morte).

...Umm, what about you, Suzuran?

Long ago, there was a tribe that lived in a valley surrounded by seven hills.

Oh?

The leader of the tribe, She-wolf, had six children.

Each of them took one of the hills, and fought against each other for food.

A hundred years later, each child had established their own tribe, and the fighting continued as before.

One of the tribes could not defeat the others, and went to snatch food from She-wolf.

Not wanting to fight her own child, She-wolf leapt into the sky and became the Moonshadow.

Whenever the moon is covered in black, all Lupos should remember the graciousness and rage of She-wolf.

So that's where the Moonshadow came from.

The other tribes came to their senses after losing She-wolf.

They exiled the worst of them, and made some rules.

From then on, Lupos stopped separating themselves into tribes, and called each other family instead.

Six families each took one hill, with the last dedicated to She-wolf.